Court decision to suspend elections to Kyiv district councils results from authorities’ fears to lose control over the city – politician

Kyiv, January 28, 2016.Decision by a Kyiv district administrative court actually postpones elections to the city’s district-level councils for undefined term, said Head of the “Democratic Alliance” political party Vasyl Gatsko at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. He reminded that district-level councils were restored only last year. In times of Yanukovych’s presidency, his rating in Kyiv was so low that in order to keep control over the city the then-authorities decided to take this self-governance mechanism away from the Kyiv citizens. “I suggest considering it the official position of the ruling party. In order not to register the decline in their support in the capital and preserve the total control over financial flows the same scenario is implemented today, the one we saw in 2010,” noted Gatsko.

According to the “Democratic Alliance” leader the system of local self-governance in Kyiv is imperfect. Big cities in the EU usually have three-four level self-governance system while the Ukrainian capital has got only the city head and the city council. “There is an administrative vertical coming down from the President’s Administration to the ten district-level administrations, […] they control financial flows today and do not want to give up these opportunities at all,” emphasized Gatsko.

Anastasia Shymchuk, Head of the “Democratic Alliance” Kyiv city office, said they plan to join as a third party the procedure of the court appeal over the decision. She explained that the first court hearing of the case did not actually take place yesterday and the court did not decide whether there are grounds to suspend the elections. However, the court has already introduced a temporary ban on authorities’ decision – it ruled for a positive decision over the administrative appeal. “It is illegal. According to the resolution by the High Administrative Court of Ukraine elections cannot be stopped with a positive decision over an administrative appeal. Respective clear-cut ban is stipulated by the Code of administrative court proceeding,” said Shymchuk. According to Vasyl Gatsko “In Ukraine there is no judge in the actual judicial system who would allow him/herself making a decision to suspend elections without consent from the President’s Administration or other political management centers.

Representatives of the “Democratic Alliance” called on political parties, civic society organizations and active citizens to engage in the process and coordinate their efforts. “We want to have the city with effective local governance. It implies a multi-level structure and a chance to engage the citizens in decision-making,” emphasized Gatsko.

Share

Topic: "How to prevent the State Bureau of Investigation from turning into the ‘club of downed pilots’"

Mustafa Nayem, Member of Parliament of Ukraine (Faction "Petro Poroshenko Bloc")
Volodymyr Petrakovskyi, Advisor to the StateWatch expert organization, member of the Scientific Advisory Board under the State Bureau of Investigation
Kateryna Butko, activist of the All-Ukrainian NGO "Avtomaidan", PROSUD Project Coordinator

UCMC press center is a platform that allows civic activists, experts, politicians, authorities, diplomats and members of international community to conduct briefings regarding events and processes taking place in Ukraine.

NGO Ukraine Crisis Media Center has no effect on media content produced during events at the UCMC press center, provides no guarantees and will not be liable for the content of information distributed by participants during the events held at the UCMC press center, including, but not limited to the participants distributing unreliable, untruthful, incomplete, inaccurate, invalid information during UCMC press center’s events or expressing their personal opinion. Furthermore, UCMC will not be liable for any damage resulting from such distribution or related to it or losses incurred by third parties.